From The Financial Times, via The China Daily:
The Bush administration on Tuesday said efforts by Chinese companies to buy international energy assets were not economically damaging to the US, dismissing growing concern among Washington lawmakers that China is hoarding global energy supplies.
Although a study by the department of energy warned that efforts by China to reach out to oil-rich “despotic regimes” such as Sudan posed “potential problems” to the US strategically, the report did not provide new ammunition to critics who claim that China’s energy demands threaten US national security. Instead, it described China’s energy policies as “economically neutral.”
The report underscores a deep divide between the approach the White House has adopted towards China on energy issues, which takes into account other diplomatic endeavours, and the panic that has enveloped congressional leaders over the issue.
